Cease and Desist Letters

If someone misuses your name and wrongfully uses it to promote their product or service, you probably ought to send a “cease and desist” letter naming every entity and person associated with this misleading bit of information. Include in it a threat to take every possible legal action in order to “protect my privacy and protect me from the misleading insinuation that I am in any wise associated with or endorsing your product, which it is specifically not my intention to do.”

On the flip side of the coin, what if you’ve received one of these letters and want to know how you are legally obliged to respond?

The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse covers the other end of the spectrum â€“ this organization offers free help for those who have received cease and desist letters demanding that information be removed from individual websites. The site is managed by some extremely heavy hitters [A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics].

It is arguably the best reference out there on the topic of “cease and desist” and moreover, offers a database of cease and desist letters. Included along with actual letters are annotations written by Chilling Effects contributors explaining what certain legal terms mean in plain English.